Lifting Ban Wouldn't Be Immediate Fix for Oil

Output Could Be
Seven Years Away;
A Vast Unknown

As politicians debate whether to open federal offshore waters to oil and natural-gas drilling, there is agreement on at least one point: It isn't a short-term fix.

If the bans were lifted tomorrow, it would be at least seven years -- and likely as long as a decade -- before the first oil began to flow off the coasts of Florida, California and the eastern seaboard.